Crouching Tiger, Hidden Disaster
by Pretty Crimson Eyes
Summary: What happens when Driger has a tiny little accident resulting not only in misfortune for poor Rei, but also in enmity between Driger and a certain someone's scarf...? kaixrei - one-shot


A friend of mine really learned her lesson the day she and a certain black cat inspired me to write this. It took longer to finish than I had expected though, but now it's done and **I do not own BeyBlade!**   

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Disaster

It was a lovely morning. Tyson and Max had finally talked their captain into giving them a day off from their hard and quite strict training. Kai hadn't said yes right away of course, but the guys had eventually found out how to get things _their_ way – at least a couple of times a week. All they had to do was drag the always sweet and innocent Rei Kon up in front of them and make him tilt his head just a little to one side while looking straight into the eyes of their captain with his own well-known seductive ones, while they asked for whatever they wanted to ask; in this case permission to get a day off. No one could resist those amber-eyes; not even Kai. And yesterday evening was no exception.

Tyson and Max had left early to meet Kenny in the park, so Rei and Kai were left all to themselves, probably the entire day.

Rei was neatly putting clothes together and slowly packing Kai's and his bags, so that they were ready to check out of the hotel the following morning. When Rei was done with his clothes he noticed his blade lying on his pillow.

'Poor Driger,' Rei thought,' he should also be allowed to enjoy his day off.'

The raven-haired boy called out the name of his loyal friend, who soon lit up the room in bright green colors. It was clear that Driger was excited about being in a hotel room and not in a small metal object with no space at all. He jumped from bed to bed, but eventually settled down in his owner's. Rei smiled and sat down next to the enormous tiger.

"Now you behave yourself, okay? I'll go downstairs and join Kai in the restaurant. I won't be long so…," Rei noticed that Driger was on the edge of falling asleep, so he didn't bother to finish that last line. Then he got up and went out the door.

Three pancakes, two pieces of toast, six glasses of orange juice and a great deal of scrambled eggs with bacon, sausages and lots of ketchup later Rei entered the hotel room. But the room didn't look a bit like the one he had left only an hour ago and what he now saw made his bright amber-eyes widen. Clothes were everywhere, white feathers from pillows were covering the floor, curtains were torn and right in the middle of it all Driger was sitting next to a _very_ familiar scarf.

'Oh no,' Rei thought, 'this is not good, this is not good.'

"Driger!" Rei cried. "What have you done?!"

The giant tiger quickly returned to his home inside Rei's blade where he was safe.

"Oh shit!" Rei said to himself and hurried to the scarf. "Kai's gonna kill me!"

Rei carefully picked up the scarf to see how bad the damage really was, but in that very second he heard a 'pling' from the elevator followed by determined footsteps in the hallway; Kai was coming.

"Shit! What am I gonna do?!" Rei asked himself while panicking even more.

He quickly shut the door and locked it, and then he began to cleaning up Driger's mess. Most of the clothes he just put in piles on the bed, but how was he supposed to get rid of all the feathers? He began to pick them up by hand, but it was no use. Suddenly someone pulled down the door handle. 'Oh no! He's here!' Rei thought and hurried to the door.

"Rei, open the door," Kai demanded. "And why is it locked anyway?"

"Uh… I'm… I'm not dressed yet!" Rei shouted in desperation.

'Not dressed yet?' Kai thought to himself while looking like one big question mark. He had already seen Rei naked hundreds of times before, but now all of a sudden he wasn't allowed to enter just because Rei wasn't dressed? Something was definitely up… But what was it _this_ time…? Kai sighed.

Eventually the door was unlocked and a panting Rei opened it.

"About time. How come you…," Kai paused when he noticed a light red color on his kitten's adorable cheeks. "Rei, are you blushing?"

"Who me?" Rei asked while trying his best to look confused.

"Yes, you. And why is there a white feather in your hair?"

"A white…? A white feather?"

"Yes, Rei. _This_ white feather," Kai said and removed the feather from Rei's hair so he could see for himself.

"Oh that feather," Rei said. "Uh… How did that get in my hair?"

"You tell me, Rei… Uh… I thought you said that you were going to pack before breakfast," Kai said surprised when he saw the big pile of clothes. "And what's happened to the curtains?"

"The curtains? Oh yeah the curtains… Uhm nothing!" Rei answered while trying to look as innocent as possible.

"Right…," Kai said while closing his eyes in disbelief.

"Well," Rei said to change the subject, "we'd better get going. We have a whole lot of walking ahead of us."

"Hmm… You're right," Kai said. "But first I have to get what I came up here for in the first place." The slate-haired boy walked further into the room while scanning every corner of it with his eyes. "Rei, have you seen my scarf?"

'Damnit!' Rei thought. He had really hoped that Kai wasn't going to ask about it, but he had just in case hidden it safely among all the clothes(1).

"No, I haven't," Rei lied(2). If Kai found out what had happened to his scarf, he would definitely turn their day off into a living hell.

"Found it," Kai said and began to put on the long, silky scarf.

Rei looked away. He didn't dare to tell him and he couldn't bear watching him put it on either.

"Well," Kai started, "are we leaving or what?"

And then they left.

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They had decided to spend their day off down town shopping or well, _Rei_ had decided. Kai just followed cause he didn't have anything else better to do – or so he'd said. But both had agreed on ending the day with a nice dinner somewhere.

After a few hours Kai was fed up with Rei's strange behavior. Why was he walking almost two meters behind him? Was Rei…embarrassed? No, why would he be? Why would _anyone_ be anything but delighted and slightly proud, too, to be walking next to Kai Hiwatari? What was up with Rei today? Why wasn't he being all let's-go-in-here-no-let's-go-in-_here_ and pulling Kai's arm like a little kid who can't decide on which ride to try first in an amusement park? Why wasn't he saying much? And what was that…?

"Rei…?" he started and made a sudden stop making Rei almost bump into him. Then he turned and stared with worried eyes at his abnormal behaving friend whose cheeks had taken an interesting shade of red. "Do you smell something?"

Rei just shook his head and made peculiar little noises with his mouth closed. Kai interpreted the response as a "no", but what was with the color on that guys face? Was it turning…_purple_? _Now_ Kai was convinced that something definitely was wrong, but the only thing he was finding odd was a weird smell he couldn't quite put his finger on what was, which had followed them ever since they had left the hotel room.

"Hn," Kai said while sending Rei, who now looked like he was going to explode, a very doubtful look. Then he turned around and continued walking, and in that exact second a quite nauseous Rei exhaled and slowly began to regain the normal color of his face.

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At sunset Rei could easily tell from Kai's body language that a major wave of rage was going to flood him any minute. He had been keeping a fair distance to Kai the whole day, but now Kai definitely didn't seemed to be able to take it anymore.

Why did his behavior always have to be anything but relaxed and normal when he was covering something up or hiding something from Kai? – or from anyone for that matter.

He remembered when Tyson wanted to throw a surprise party for Max last June and the blonde had kept asking _him _what was going on with Tyson's sudden absence. _Not_ Kenny, _not_ Dizzi, _definitely not_ Kai, but Rei Kon, because in him we obviously trust. But that wasn't the hardest he'd had to keep silent about.

No, it'd been a million times worse when he'd accidentally dyed every single pair of the team's white socks cotton candy pink. Suddenly all the socks had mysteriously vanished, but were found a week later distributed under each of the team members' beds. That was the last time _Rei_ was picked to do the laundry. He sighed. He had to tell Kai sooner or later. Besides, no one really took it _that_ badly after recovering the socks…right…? And he _did_ make it up to them afterwards.

"Kai," Rei started and ran up next to the slate-haired boy who was walking further down the street. "Wait up! I have to tell you something." He took a deep breath.

Kai stopped immediately, but kept staring straight ahead. His arms were crossed, probably to keep him from losing his temper and destroying his surroundings _or_ turning certain blue-haired people with caps' insides into outsides when they're being too annoying, Rei assumed.

"Look, there's something I have to tell you, something I must confess," Rei continued while placing himself so that he'd look right into those two unfathomable seas of fine red wine. Rei leaned his head on one side and blinked as if he was waiting for some kind of respond from Kai or maybe just trying to calm him down by smiling innocently – it seemed to work. He slowly began to relax his jaw and stopped tensing his muscles.

"What?!" the taller boy snapped.

"U-uhm…," Rei stuttered suddenly not knowing where to begin. "I-I-I'm sorry if I've been a little uhm…_distant_ today, but…" Rei hesitated.

"Yeah?" Kai arched an eyebrow.

"But there's a really good explanation to all this uhm…"

"All this…? All this what?! Odd behavior?" Kai continued for Rei while nodding.

"Yeah… Exactly." Rei could feel that his eyes would soon begin to water. Damn that cat-like olfactory sense!

"Well, spit it out then, Rei."

"Uh…I…I…," he couldn't tell him the truth. "I've planned a surprise party for you!" Damn that lack of courage in situations like this one!

Kai blinked. "What?"

"Yeah, a surprise party! The others are in it, too." Rei cursed himself for saying this.

"But, Rei… My birthday isn't until next year."

"I know…! But am I not allowed to throw a party for the most uh reasonable team captain in the world? For a friend? For someone I care about?"

Kai didn't respond, just stared at the raven-haired boy's face which had once again taken an interesting shade of red.

The more creative part of Rei's brain suddenly seemed to have been activated and taken control. "Look, I was supposed to keep you occupied the whole day, and after dinner we'd go back to the hotel, I was going to uhm…blindfold you in the elevator so you'd think that…uhm…yeah, and then everyone was gonna scream "surprise" when we entered the room." At this point he couldn't help covering his mouth and nose with his hand so that he could take deeper breaths.

"Hn," Kai eventually started. So that was what had been bothering Rei? But was that really enough to make him look…well, _sick_?

Even though he'd never been a fan of surprise parties he decided to give his poor kitten a break and just go along with his plans. After all, it was _mostly_ that annoying smell which had gotten him all worked up; not Rei.

He smiled wickedly. "Well, then… Keep me occupied."

Rei slowly removed his hand and smiled insecurely looking like someone who didn't know what to say or do next. This only made Kai stare at him even more intensely. Rei not being sure of what to do with himself or where to look could be so fascinating and quite amusing, too.

Eventually Rei broke the silence and made Kai snap out of his little trance. "I know exactly where to eat." Then he took the slate-haired boy's hand and started dragging him through the enormous crowd of people filling the street.

'Now, that's more like it,' Kai thought and let himself be lead to whichever place Rei had in mind.

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After fifteen minutes of walking, pulling and pushing they stopped in front of a restaurant which at first didn't seem to ring a bell in Kai's head. Was this supposed to be some place familiar?

"Hn," he said and narrowed his eyes.

"You don't recognize it?" Rei asked hoping that he would say no.

"No," Kai answered frankly while blushing inside. There was actually a place Kai Hiwatari _didn't_ recall seeing before? Such place really existed? Damn that Rei; he – and only _he _- always made him swallow his pride and admit defeat. In this case admitting that he according to his memory had never seen that restaurant before in his life. Had he become more and more inattentive to his surroundings? And when did _this_ happen anyway?! He closed his eyes.

Rei sighed in relief after hearing a "no" come out between Kai's lips. How lucky was one allowed to be? Things had gone so well the last time they were at this restaurant; when he said his final apology to the guys for the sock-incident and bought them dinner. This was definitely the place to be when apologies were to be given; the food stole all the attention. And now things were looking even better; if Kai didn't recognize the place, he wouldn't suspect anything if Rei should change his mind and _not_ tell… Well, the truth!

"You don't? Oh… Well, never mind. It looks okay, right?"

Kai nodded and then they headed for the entrance.

Inside Rei specifically asked – luckily without Kai noticing - to be placed in the smoking area hoping that the smell of smoke would drown out the even nastier smell he had temporarily gotten rid of in the crowd of people they had forced their way through in the street. The smell had sort of evaporated, but would soon gain enough strength to sneak right in to every guests and employee's nostrils and make their faces twitch in disgust.

After being placed at a table for two next to a window in the back of the room Rei thought that he might as well tell Kai the truth now, receive whatever punishment Kai might come up with and then enjoy the rest of their day off with a clear conscience _and_ of course probably hide Driger in a hurry when they got back to the hotel. How hard could it be? And he should definitely do it now while he still had the courage and before it was too late and he actually _had_ to arrange a surprise party. "Kai, there's something else I have to tell you."

"What now, Rei?" Kai sighed and put the menu down. He had been so busy thinking and torturing himself mentally because of a discovery he had made only minutes ago at the entrance that it wasn't until now he noticed that they were sitting in the smoking area. He scanned the whole room. "And why are we sitting _here_? There are tables in the non-smoking area that aren't taken."

"Uhm… They are… uh… reserved, yeah. But Kai, listen. There's something I really have to tell you, before things get weirder and even more out of control than they already are."

Kai looked curiously at Rei who was doing that irresistible puppy-thing with his eyes begging him to listen. Then he leaned back and crossed his arms. "You have my attention."

But in that very same minute as Rei was about to confess everything a waiter came to take their orders. "We'll have the fish," Kai said casually with his eyes still focused on Rei who was looking very uncomfortable. "It's okay with you, right?" Perhaps he wanted something else?

Rei just nodded and once again made sounds that had to be interpreted to make sense. "Right," Kai continued. "And some iced water, please. A pitcher, no lime." Then the waiter left immediately and silence took over. Rei looked out the window, Kai looked at Rei. When the two eventually made eye contact Kai arched an eyebrow signaling that it was okay for Rei to go on with… well, whatever he was trying to tell him.

"Right," Rei started. "Where was I…? Oh, yeah. It's like this…" He might as well come clean. "There is no surprise party… There never was. I made it up." He lowered his look not knowing how relieved Kai was to hear that. Silence once again filled the air.  

After a short pause Kai broke the silence. "How come?" He choked back a smirk.

Rei sighed. "Well, you see… There was this uh little accident earlier today and it sort of involved a huge tiger and uh… your… scarf." Kai's face was impassive, only his eyes kept digging deeper and deeper in to poor Rei's soul – at least that's how it felt. "I was trying to tell you earlier, but then I found out how upset you _really_ were so I didn't dare to. I had to say _something_, right?"

"You know what, Rei? I actually _do_ remember this place."

Rei's eyes widened. "You do?"

"You bought all of us dinner here once, right?"

"Yeah," Rei answered carefully. He had just dug his own grave.

"But why was that…? Oh, yes. It was because of that laundry accident of yours."

Rei was speechless. His plans had succeeded almost without any problems and soon Kai would be punishing him for being retarded enough to let a thing like that happen to his scarf. But hey… Wait a minute. He hadn't told him what had actually happened to it yet! Why wasn't he asking about it? According to Rei's plans Kai should be 'torturing' him in some typical Kai-ish way by now. What was going on? Suddenly he realized. Kai was already doing it! He _knew_. But then the next question popped in to Rei's head: For how long? And did Kai also know that Rei now knew that he knew? He had to come up with something to say next; something smooth and not too obvious. But he was blank.

"And by the way," Kai smirked. "You have to a little more careful when you pick out restaurants you want to take me to."

What was he talking about now? Had he known for _that_ long? Ever since they arrived? Had he pretended to not remember the place just to play around with his mind even more? He still didn't have a clue about what to say. All he could do was to look confusedly at the slate-haired boy who obviously found this very amusing.

"You know, some restaurants have mirrors at the entrance." Kai held up one of the ends of his scarf so Rei once again could look at the yellow stain Driger had left on the silky fabric that used to be all white. He grieved.

"Please don't kill Driger," Rei begged. "He didn't mean to."

"Don't worry, I won't kill Driger. I'll just settle for you."

Rei gasped inside. He cursed himself for letting Driger out in the first place. That scarf meant so much to Kai, it was one of his trademarks, a part of his character. Of course Rei knew that he wouldn't be killed literally – at least he hoped not – but he definitely had _something_ coming in the very near future. "I'm sorry, Kai. I should've told even before we left the hotel room, but I was too afraid of how you'd react and I know how important that scarf is to you so…"

"Rei," Kai interrupted. "Relax, I have another one."

A panicking Rei went mute, but he slowly began to lighten up when he realized what had just been said. Of course he had another one! The guy's prepared for anything. The worst was over and the storm was reducing. Kai wasn't playing around with him anymore so it was safe to speak freely and there was no need to be watching out for anything. They both just sat and stared at the other in silence. Behind the cold, unshakable façade Rei somehow sensed a bit of  disappointment, but when something that hopefully would change the atmosphere to the better popped in to his head he didn't give it another thought.

A mischievous smile appeared on Rei's lips. "You know… It could have been a lot worse."

Kai narrowed his eyes.

"I could have dyed it pink." Rei tilted his head just a little to one side and put his hand on the table hoping that Kai would put his on top. But he didn't.

Rei sighed and started to give up hope. He lowered his face.

"For _your_ sake," Kai suddenly started almost making Rei jump up from his seat. "I'm glad you didn't." Then he put his hand on top of Rei's. 

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A few hours later they were back in the hotel room which this time looked exactly as the one they had left; chaotic.

Rei was back in his good, old, positive and happy mood so the mess didn't really bother him, but he wrapped Driger in a t-shirt and threw it under his bed immediately just in case someone was still a little irritable, after all Kai _did_ keep the scarf on all the way back to the hotel just to annoy his surroundings, especially Rei who he knew had already suffered the whole day, so why not keep it that way?

The others obviously hadn't returned yet, cause there were no strange, loud noises coming from the room next door. Kai locked the door and leaned against it. 

"But I really disapprove of the fact that you were too afraid to tell me the truth immediately and therefore had to lie." Kai started in an insulted tone. He paused while lowering his face. "Sometimes I wonder if there's actually a single thing about me that you like."

Now what could Rei possibly tell Kai that he didn't already know? What to do? Tell him how incredibly sexy and attackable he looked when was being serious about something – also meaning constantly? Tell him how much he enjoyed waking up wrapped in to his strong arms every morning? Tell him how his eyes could seduce him anytime and anywhere? Confess his undying love for him? No, why repeat _that_ speech? Kai definitely knew that so what's the use?

"Well," Rei started. "I like how I always have to stand on my tippietoes to kiss you." He smiled innocently while moving closer to Kai still leaning against the door.

Kai looked up and met a pair of irresistible, glowing amber-eyes. He couldn't help smiling slightly. It was always nice to be confirmed once in a while and to find out how creative Rei really could be. _Now_ he could stop screwing around with him; he had gotten what he wanted. 

"Kai?"

"Hn?"

"Lose the scarf."

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(1) Right… As if Kai isn't gonna find his beloved scarf anyways. They have some kind of special bond.  

(2) And yes. Rei lies sometimes, too.


End file.
